I enjoyed it, too. I'm a big fan of Tallis (and Byrd, Palestrina, etc.). Which group performed the Tallis piece in the podcast? It didn't sound like the recordings I have.

My conservative water-cooler lurking reaches back from Ricochet (through various Fox News personalities, Limbaugh, FreeRepublic, and finally to earlier days of AM talk radio in Dallas and G. Gordon) to the horrors of day-by-day, hour-by-hour, it's-happening-as-we-speak-down-the-road-in-Waco, annihilation of the Branch Davidians. I don't care that they were nuts, they were men, women and children and the Feds sent snipers and tanks against them. There is nothing "future" about our dystopia. Ruby Ridge, Waco, Elian Gonzales - is the over-reaching misuse of drones that big of a stretch?

Can I have two minutes back, please?

Furthermore, rather than questioning why Rand Paul hasn't filibustered an additional issue, why not ask what the other Senators have done to advance the cause? When was the last time McCain, Graham, or any of the others drew a line in the sand? Rather than "what else?", I prefer to ask "who else?"

I received a link to the animation yesterday from a friend in academia with the comment "appalling!". My friend, and Mr. Thompson, saw a graph with a very low side on the left and a very high side on the right, and deemed it "appalling", and proceeded to use it to skewer a system they oppose (and all but profess, "we would be better off with a bit more socialism"). A better read of the data is that only the left side of the graph represents a problem; the right side is sterling. (Isn't it pleasantly ironic that economic struggle falls on the left side of this graph, and economic success falls on the right?) Mr. Thompson would do better to ask the hard questions as to why the left side is so low, regardless of the inequality of the right. Broken marriages, maybe? Teenage pregnancy? An ever-increasing dependency on the state? Maybe he could work those stats into a new animation and actually open some eyes.

I concluded long ago that some force on the dark side has dirt on McCain. His (ancient) history should have seen him a cornerstone of American Greatness, yet he actively works to sabotage every significant opportunity to escape the doldrums of big government.

Not meaning to derail the question, but 36 years? Good gosh, that's a crime (series of crimes?). No one should be in public service that long - the public would be much better off less serviced.

Aren't all spending cuts, even in the sequester, still just reductions to the rate of growth in spending, ala Baseline Budgeting? Am I mistaken? Will any spending actually shrink with the sequester? Unless we are talking real/absolute cuts, I don't care what bucket they hit.

I have to say that I'm a bit surprised, and more than a bit confused. Not being any kind of expert on Israel, I've taken the Republican message on Israel at face value: the Republicans are friends and defenders of Israel, the Democrats are not. We certainly don't boo God at our convention. The message I take from this podcast is: nothing to worry about, Obama will do the right thing when the time comes. I sensed no concern whatsoever. Do the Republicans oversell on this point? If so, it would at least help explain why the Democrats garner so much of the Jewish vote.

"Falter"? There we go again, losing the language.

A&M's victory was a welcome bright light in an otherwise dreary week. My guess is the team refused to be labeled by the opposition. (As an aside for those who might not know, A&M regularly ranks very high on lists of the nation's most conservative universities.)

Gig 'Em Aggies, looking forward to 3 more years of Johnny Football!

I'm only halfway through the podcast and had to stop and comment. I am so relieved to hear that someone (Jay) isn't jumping to the "we have to change" conclusion.

I've read (and heard) so much analysis that says the Republican party needs to become more like the Democrats. What need is there for this? If people want to vote for the Democrats and liberalism, they already have the perfect choice.

So many here and outside Ricochet think we need to change. Conservatism is not wrong, it is not flawed, and it doesn't need to be packaged or tailored for countless permutations of demographics. Let's stick to our principals, which includes holding individuals accountable for their choices. The American people, at least 50% of them, have made the wrong choice and are beyond persuasion via editorials, debates, podcasts and talk radio. At some point down the road, the reality of their lives will convince them to consider an alternative. And when that happens, the Republican party needs to be a clear and honest choice, not a pale shadow of the Democrats inviting them to try something that is only a bit less liberal.

Kids of the future? Not my kids. My kids of the future are kicking these pathetic, whiney, pansy kids' tails in the class room and on the fields of competition. Mine know propaganda when they hear it, they know the evils of big government and they know where their freedoms come from. When these kids are spending their days in counseling trying to figure out what their parents did to them, mine will lead, succeed and live the American dream.  Not all is lost, my kids of the future are from Texas.

I also live in Texas. I've lived in many other places, inside and outside the country. The rest of the country is nuts.

To your last point, the road to Central Planning is littered with the victims of the Unintended Consequence. Pride goeth, as they say.

I also pegged to the right. I had a problem with the survey from the get go: "How do you feel about each of the following..." - I don't feel anything about these questions, but I do think about them. Good grief.